If you've caught Nashville indie-pop group Heypenny in concert recently, you already know that the band likes to make their performances stand out from the pack. Between the head-turning (literally) rear-of-house entrance, marching band attire and synced up video presentation, their wasn't a soul in the Mercy Lounge that wasn't bowled over by the band's winning set for the "Road to Bonnaroo" concert competition last May.

It should come as no surprise that the band wishes to make its Saturday night slot at this year's Next Big Nashville festival something extra-special. They're hoping attendees will act as their back-up singers -- and they're hoping there will be about a thousand of them (don't tell the fire marshal).

But the parts they have in mind are a little more complex than the usual "hey, hey, hey" fare a band typically asks of their crowd. The band has put together a video primer in hopes that fans can study up before the show. Behold, above.

“Next Big” implies prognostication, which, during this roiling time in music and business, is daunting if not impossible. And “Nashville” has its own set of challenges — namely trying to nudge other genres of local music out of country music’s dominant shadow.

It’s created a dilemma Wilkins has faced each year in the event’s four-year history (the 2009 fest runs October 7-11 in various Nashville venues): to keep Nashville in the title, or to drop it in favor of blunting those assumptions.

“People really have a hard time thinking beyond how loaded Nashville is with country music, even with the successes of artists like Paramore, Kings of Leon and Jack White,” Wilkins says. “But I didn’t want to give that up, and after a lot of soul-searching, we kept it.”

Rather than sidestep Nashville’s dominant music-center reputation, Wilkins and his Next Big Nashville partners are choosing to take it on directly, as part of the festival’s conference schedule. Veteran music journalist and former Tennessean staffer Robert K. Oermann will offer his “How Nashville Became Music City” presentation — a look at the city’s musical history previously only available to industry group Leadership Music’s incoming classes — as the conference’s kickoff.Continue reading →

We're less than two weeks away from the start of Next Big Nashville '09, the multi-genre music fest (now in its fourth year) that will bring over 150 local, regional and national rock/pop/urban acts for four days of club-rocking, and er, panel-having.

Word came through earlier this year that Kevin Lyman, producer of the long-running punk-rock road show Warped Tour, had a similarly structured country tour in the works for 2010. He and Warped are apparently working themselves into the Nashville music-biz community a little earlier than that, too, and a little left of country.

Lyman and Co. have announced the "Next Warped Nashville" stage during the upcoming local, multi-date music festival Next BIG Nashville. On the schedule for this year's kickoff NBN Warped stage: familiar Warped Tour names Therefore I Am, VersaEmerge and Conditions, with some fresh faces to be named later.

“What (fest founder Jason Moon Wilkins) has created with Next Big Nashville over the years is instrumental in Nashville’s music scene and something we are proud to be a part of," Lyman said in a statement. "We’ve enjoyed holding similar showcases at (Austin music fest South by Southwest) and Canadian Music Week, and when given this opportunity from Jason, we were more than excited to be a part of it.”

Next BIG Nashville runs October 7-10 at various venues throughout Nashville. Next BIG Nashville wristbands and VIP badges (currently $40 plus fees for the former, $100 for the latter) are available here.